November on the White Rim

Looking back down from the top of Mineral Bottom and our first climb of the day, Canyonlands National Park, November 12th.

With winter having arrived in the mountains of Colorado it was time to head west to the Utah desert and attempt a single day ride of the White Rim with Brian and Parker. Though we certainly didn’t set any speed records and rode around 30 miles of the route in the dark, we managed to finish the loop and wound up with plenty of takeaways regarding how to do things better the next time around.

The White Rim Trail is a 100-mile long dirt road that carves out a massive loop around the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands National Park. The route weaves and winds through some of the most dramatic canyon country Utah has to offer and has slowly but surely evolved into one of the more famous “century” mountain bike rides in the U.S. Parties oftentimes take two to four days to complete the loop, camping at various locations along the way, but it’s also become a popular option to ride the entire thing in a single day push, which is what we were hoping to do.

A rendering of the route based off our GPX track with notable locations marked. We started at Mineral Bottom and rode in the clockwise direction. Click to enlarge.

The single day option has its advantages, one being that vehicle and camping permits which can be difficult to obtain given the route’s popularity, aren’t required. Another is that with a small crew looking to split the route up into multiple days, in the absence of a dedicated support vehicle and driver, each rider would need to drive/shuttle for a significant portion of the route. Lastly, with November temperatures what they were on this day, I don’t think any of us had any qualms about sleeping in a warm bed before and after the ride as opposed to camping.

At the Canyonlands Park entrance 18 miles in.

Descending the Shafer switchbacks, one of the larger descents of the day going in the clockwise direction no matter where you start.

Another point of debate/preference is the question of which direction to go, as both seem to have their advantages and disadvantages. Clockwise starting at Mineral Bottom you get a large climb out of the way at the start of the day but have to also climb the steeper sides of Murphy’s Hogback and Hardscrabble. Counterclockwise is arguably the more rideable direction overall as you tackle these obstacles from the opposite side, but you are left with a large climb up Shafer most likely at the tail end of the day.

Towering desert walls on all sides, taken towards the bottom of Shafer.

…and the long road ahead. Click to enlarge.

Our consensus – next time we might try the counterclockwise direction starting at the Mineral Road/Route 313 intersection, which would allow for a long descent to begin the day and then five miles of easy paved road at the tail end of the day. This option would also minimize the drive time from Moab to and from the starting point, which is an added bonus.

Descending a small saddle towards Airport Tower, one of the many distinguishable rock buttes along the eastern portion of the route.

Further along below the Monster Towers.

Past Gooseberry the route flattens out a bit and the road becomes smoother, allowing for faster travel from there to White Crack. All along this section there are around a dozen or more overlook points down into Monument Basin, which is a sight to behold especially with the snowcapped La Sals in the distance.

Looking back east through Monument Basin from one of the many White Rim overlooks along the southern portion of the route. Click to enlarge.

Nearing White Crack, where the road turns back north towards Murphy Hogback.

We made good time from White Crack to Murphy’s, doing the math on how much further we still had to go with the amount of daylight we had left. At this point I think we all realized we were going to be finishing well past sunset, but made it a goal to get up and over Murphy’s and into the seventies mileage-wise while we still had some light in the sky.

Ascending Murphy Hogback as the hour began to grow late.

Beyond Murphy’s we still had around 30 miles left to go after the sun disappeared below the horizon, ending in a somewhat late evening bordering on a mini-epic. The lack of daylight to work with is definitely one of the drawbacks to riding this route in mid-November. But also we just weren’t moving quickly enough especially after dark. Not to single out any one issue necessarily, as we all had our fair share of things going on that sucked up time throughout the day, but the fact that Brian was on a gravel bike instead of a mountain bike like Parker and I was a big factor.

Descending off the north side of Murphy’s at sunset.

Without going into too much detail, and despite what you may read on the interwebs to the contrary, we truly feel that this is not a gravel bike route. Over the course of 100 miles the road is just rough enough and the climbs and descents just steep enough that in order to move efficiently across the entirety of the terrain in a day, a mountain bike is needed and preferably a full-suspension one at that. I welcome any claims to the contrary in the comments below as I’m sure someone out there will have a beef with this, but that is our group’s official position on the matter.

Regardless, we all made it up and over Hardscrabble and to the finish line eventually with a myriad of new experience and lessons learned, which makes me want to go back that much more and complete the route again someday. And though November on the White Rim is beautiful, I think October is the better bet for any future outings. One final piece of advice if you do go for a late start in November… Dominos Pizza in Moab is open until 1am 🙂 Brian and Parker, thanks for a memorable one out there. Let’s go do it better sometime.

Spectacular views to the north with the Candlestick Tower in the distance. Does the sun have to go down? Click to enlarge.

And with that we’re on to ski season…